Chapter Text
They were already beyond the galaxy when Keith’s voice drifted through the intercom, casual, almost absent-minded, like he was talking to himself more than to Lance. And yet Lance knew Keith wanted him to hear, or he wouldn’t have opened the channel.
“Where are they taking us?”
“No idea. But if it’s Black and Red, it’s probably somewhere far. They’re the fastest lions, after all.”
He couldn’t be sure that was the reason only those two had appeared in New Altea, but he could feel Red was in a hurry, an urgency that made his stomach twist. Something was wrong.
“I think they want us to head for that asteroid belt.”
Lance only hummed as he followed Keith toward a massive belt, light-years away from the system’s center. It resembled Earth’s asteroid belt, except the rocks here were far bigger, and that was saying something.
After carefully weaving through the enormous drifting stones, both paladins felt their lions guiding them toward one asteroid in particular. A huge one, clearly once much larger than its neighbors, but now shattered, its fragments floating in a halo of debris. Something had crashed into it, and the lions wanted them to investigate.
“We need to be careful. We don’t know what’s down there, and without your suit you can’t leave Red.”
“I’m sorry, only me? What about you?”
“I’ve got a Blade’s emergency suit. Pocket-sized. Always on me.”
“Of course you do…”
Lance rolled his eyes, sighing loudly into the comm. Why did he even ask? After all these years, he should’ve known Keith never went anywhere without a backup spacesuit.
The lions landed. Dust and shattered stone still hung thick in the air, making it hard to see. The space was too tight to move with the lions. Another problem.
“I’ll go down and scout. Red’s smaller than Black. He’ll move better here. Cover me, Lance.”
It was a terrible idea, going out blind in this choking haze of dust. But there was no other way to figure out what their lions had sensed, no other way to know what was happening. So Lance simply grunted his agreement.
Red stepped forward behind Keith, but each step kicked up more dust, blinding him even further. Soon he couldn’t even make out Keith’s shape.
“See anything? From here, it’s all dust. Red’s scanners are useless too, something’s interfering. God, I miss Pidge and Hunk in situations like this.”
“I think I see something. I’m going in.”
Keith’s voice crackled with static, each burst making Lance’s nerves tighten.
“There’s something in the crater. Whatever fell is glowing. I’m sending you the feed from my visor.”
Red’s screen flickered, showing a choppy image of a deep crater and a shifting, multicolored light, one color brightest of all: a familiar blue.
“What’s that in the center?”
“No idea. I’m getting closer. Lance, keep watch.”
“Yeah.”
Keith slid down the crater wall. At the bottom, one of the blue glints moved.
Instinctively, Keith reached for his sword. The blue light rose, another flashed, and in an instant a shot tore through the dust, dispersing it. Keith dodged, and a familiar face emerged. Violet hair.Long ears. Markings beneath her eyes.
“You’re—”
“Keith! That’s the Altean from the other dimension!”
Lance’s shout rang through the comm.
The woman paced in a circle, weapon in one hand, a glowing multicolored rock in the other. Keith moved in the opposite direction, sword raised, eyes tracking her.
Silence.
Only drifting dust between them.
Then her smile broke the stillness. A tremor followed. Keith lunged. A shot struck his blade, and her silhouette vanished back into the cloud.
But something else appeared.
“Keith, get out of there!”
Lance’s voice cracked through the static.
“KEITH! Get back to your lion NOW!”
His desperation was unmistakable.
The second tremor told Keith why.
A robot rose above the dust. White and black plating, blue lights, terrifyingly similar to Altean tech from the other dimension.
It wasn’t lion-sized; maybe as tall as Black’s leg. But standing over Keith, it was enormous.
And lethal.
Keith sprinted up the crater, but the loose dirt dragged at his feet. The robot would’ve fried him if Lance hadn’t cut in, intercepting the blast.
The robot was faster than Red, weaving between the lion’s legs with ease.
One shot. Then another. Then a third, all narrowly missing Keith, all intercepted by Lance. The ground trembled. The climb back to Black felt endless, but he finally reached the cockpit and joined the fight.
Just in time.
The small robot had slipped into Red’s blind spot. Keith intercepted the attack.
“Thanks, bro.”
“I only made it because you had my back. Now let’s stop that Altean. However she got here, it wasn’t for anything good.”
“If crossing dimensions can ever be for anything good.”
Red and Black circled the robot, firing and dodging floating rocks. Each blast sent more dust and debris flying, making the chase nearly impossible.
The Altean machine was too fast, even faster than Red. They couldn’t keep up.
Hers shots were weak compared to past battles, but precise, and the Altean was smart. She used her speed to make Keith accidentally shoot at Lance, and Lance at Keith.
Not ideal.
“Keith, could you not shoot me?”
“What do you want me to do?! She dodges last-second every time!”
“We need another plan or we’re both done for.”
“Got any bright ideas?”
“Sort of. I can lure her toward you so you can hit her with Black’s blade before she dodges. Like we did with Rolo.”
“It’s… something. Let’s try. Red’s the only one fast enough to maneuver in this belt.”
And so they tried. At first, the lions pretended to corner her again, but the Altean didn’t fall for it and bolted away. Lance chased her through the maze of asteroids, looping her back to where Keith waited.
When she shot beneath Black, he dove, blade extended.
An explosion.
Rock clattering.
Dust rising.
“Did we get her?”
“Looks like it…”
The dust began to clear.
Half the robot’s arm drifted away as space junk.
They had hit her, barely. The damage didn’t even slow her. She raised her remaining arm, firing a laser from the empty socket where it had been.
She didn’t need two arms to fight.
“Great. That did nothing.”
“And she won’t fall for it again.”
Another sigh from Keith.
The enemy braced against a meteor, then launched herself at high speed, suddenly beside Red, firing point-blank.
Even weak shots hurt at that range.
Red stumbled back, crashing into a rock.
“Lance! Lance, are you okay?!”
Keith raced toward him, but the robot zipped past, winding up for another close-range shot.
“LANCE!”
Silence.
The hit had been harder than expected and Lance had no suit.
The Altean raised her arm to fire again but a laser stopped her.
Then roots burst from the raised arm, shredding it in seconds.
“Guys? You okay?”
Pidge’s voice came through the comm.
The enemy ship staggered back, discarding the arm remnants and trying to escape, only for The Yellow Lion to slam it into another asteroid.
“We’ve got your backs!”
Relief washed through Keith at the sight of Pidge and Hunk, armor and all.
“Thanks… Hunk, Pidge…”
Finally, Lance’s voice came through, strained, exhausted.
“How’re you feeling, Lance? You okay, dude?”
“Yeah… I’m fine. Just forgot what it feels like to get my butt kicked.”
Hunk hovered beside Red, checking on him.
“How did you guys get here?”
“We felt the lions leave the castle. They guided us straight to you. Watching you two fighting that thing from afar was… something.”
Their banter lightened the tension. Almost felt like the old days.
“So what is that thing?” Pidge asked, pulling up next to Black.
“Remember the evil Altean from the other dimension? It’s her.”
“How could I forget.”
“Pidge, scan her robot. I saw her pick up a glowing rock, probably related to how she crossed over.”
Keith sounded far calmer now that backup had arrived.
“That’s what I’m thinking. Let me check.”
“Hurry! she’s getting up.”
The armless robot staggered upright, far slower than before. Their hits were hurting her at least. With difficulty, she bent her remaining legs, anchoring into the rock. A strange contortion, and she lifted herself, knees now bending inward.
“I think she can’t stand. We really messed her up,” Hunk said, hopeful.
“I don’t think that’s why…” Lance muttered, shifting Red aside.
“Good news and bad news, guys” Pidge announced. “Good news: I know what the robot is. And the rock she has.”
“And the bad?” Keith asked.
“The bad is that rock is a reality-piercing meteorite. The same kind used for Lotor’s ship. And for the lions.”
Pidge’s voice was tight. Troubled.
Rightly so.
“We can’t let her escape! Surround her!”
Keith shot forward. But the Altean had only been crouching to build momentum. She launched herself, weaving past asteroids and lions at blinding speed.
“We cannot let her get away with that rock! She’ll build more reality-crossing ships!”
Pidge fired after her, but the robot was too fast.
“Not again. The first time with Lotor was enough of a headache,” Lance grumbled, his tone relaxed in that familiar, joking way he used to soften tension.
“We have to stop her,” Keith insisted.
“Yeah,” Hunk said, “but how? We only have four lions, no Coran, and no…”
“Allura…”
Hunk fell silent. Lance’s voice when he said her name was heavy, worn, nothing like the cheer from moments earlier.
“Yeah,” Keith said quietly. “And no reinforcements. There’s no one within several galaxies who can help…”
“But we can’t let her escape either,” he continued. “We have to try. Lance, your lion’s the fastest. Chase her through the asteroids. Don’t lose her. Force her out, and we’ll intercept.”
“Got it. Like with Rolo…”
“The rest of us. Let’s move out and wait for Lance.”